If you want to make steps towards being happy, the good news is that you can. Identified here are the actions, choices and habits all contributing to your level of happiness. Below are the 7 habits of highly unhappy people.

*Of course, if you are suffering with depression that is completely different from being unhappy and you should seek professional help to get through.

1. They Take the Easy Way Out

If there are two roads to choose from, many people will choose the easy way. Sometimes that is okay, but over time, the problem is that the easy way often comes with less reward including self-satisfaction of rising through challenges.

As humans, we don’t want any suffering or hardship. We want to feel good. However it is through our struggles that we can appreciate the results. Likewise, we can appreciate our self for the effort put forth.

Happy people make it through with effort and are willing to do what it takes to live a happy life. Happy people treat failures as stepping stones to success. Unhappy people can’t handle failing and so they avoid it altogether by quitting.

At first, they may be excited to start an endeavor but often lose interest fairly quickly. Follow through is an issue with unhappy people, especially when they encounter setbacks.

Unhappy people typically bounce from interest to interest and not really fulfilling their dreams.

2. They Blame and Criticize Others

Unhappy people express their unhappiness with themselves in the form of blaming and criticizing others. In blaming and criticizing people, unhappy people feel a few seconds of pain relief and this is the motivation for doing so. The thing is, it doesn’t last more than a few moments. The blaming and criticizing doesn’t really help them to feel better and it is a definite habit of an unhappy person.

3. They Think, Do and Say Negative Things

Unhappy people see problems but never the solutions. When things go wrong, they complain. When things go right, they complain. They blame the wind for ruining their hair rather than thanking the sun for a beautiful day. Unhappy people complain. A lot.

Unhappy people also think that people are against them. They are quick to blame and exaggerate. They view mistakes as catastrophes.

Unhappy people become discouraged easily instead of learning from their mistakes.

4. They Act Before They Think

Unhappy people act based on impulse. If something feels good, they go for it. If something feel uncomfortable, they avoid it at all costs. Happy people think through their actions and consider the consequences of their choices. It’s not that they don’t follow their intuition. In fact, they do. But the difference is that they think first. They take a pause when making decisions. Likewise, what happy people know is that discomfort is a part of life. They know that in order to move past it, they need to be with it for a time. So they don’t avoid things simply because some discomfort will be involved.

5. They Try to Bring Others Down To Their Level

Unhappy people envy the happiness and success of others. Instead of working hard to achieve their goals, unhappy people gossip and find fault with others in an attempt to bring them down and make themselves feel better.

6. They Talk Much More Than They Listen

Unhappy people lack the capacity to truly listen to others. They are too caught up in their own inner unhappy world to hold an empathic space for another person. You will find them talking much more than they listen.

7. They Don’t Play

Immersing oneself in activities that are truly enjoyable is a key to happiness. What does this mean? It means doing nothing. See The Gifts of Imperfection by Brene Brown to learn more about why doing nothing is so key to happiness. Happy people know that time doing nothing but being is not wasted.